


it's beginning to look a lot like christmas

by DoctorFitzy (KittooningMalijah)



Series: bar au [3]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Angst, Christmas, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, bar au, ficmas 2k17, gratuitous leopold fitz characterization, i love my boy and i miss writing him, so strap in guys because it's time for sadness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-02
Updated: 2017-12-14
Packaged: 2019-02-09 10:38:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12886098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KittooningMalijah/pseuds/DoctorFitzy
Summary: For a few weeks every year, Leo allowed the Ward brothers to give the bar a more festive feel. For the customers, of course.





	1. soon, the bells will start

          Staring down at the plate in front of him, Leo blinked twice, opened his mouth, and closed it again. It was that time of year again - he was the resident foodie, so he was fed “holiday” food the entire month of December. At least he wasn’t woken up at midnight on December first and being force fed bright green pasta with tomato sauce.

          That had been the year when Thomas had been determined to perfect his homemade spaghetti. It wasn’t  _bad_ , just...  _neon_.

          No, this year, it was an entirely different style of cuisine, and at a reasonable hour.  _This year_ , it was red tortilla chips, ground beef, and then a layer of something the same shade of green he associated with the bout of food poisoning he’d given himself during his first month away from home. Needless to say, he didn’t feel particularly inclined to try it.

          “Absolutely not. Try again next year, Tommy.” With that, Leo turned his full attention back to his tea and slowly shook his head. They had to decorate and put stupid puns on the menu to keep customers happy, he knew that. But, outside of the hat that somehow ended up on his head instead of Grant’s every night, he didn’t have to actively participate in the celebration. Leo had his boyfriend and their bar, and that was all he cared about.

           **(**   _even if his family couldn’t make the trip for the holidays, even if things were messy during the years that they could, he was happy with the life that he’d built, and he didn’t mind showing it_   **)**

The cushion of the couch sinking with new weight made him look over, openly frowning when Thomas let out a groan. “It’s just  _cheese_ , ‘Poldo. The only reason it’s green is because I dug out the extra food coloring from St. Patrick’s Day - it’s perfectly healthy.”

          Grimacing, Leo pushed the plate of  _nachos_  to the other end of the coffee table with a shake of his head. “For green, we could have just offered extra guacamole or jalapenos. You didn’t have to make it look like toxic waste.” He sipped at his tea again, trying to ignore the plate only a few feet away.

          Thomas let out another groan, openly pouting while he looked across the room. “Grant, your boyfriend’s being mean again.”

          With a roll of his eyes, the elder Ward brother looked up from where he was hanging lights on their tree. There was a real tree downstairs, where everyone else would see it, with ornaments and tinsel and lights, but the small one upstairs, the fake on they kept in their apartment, was sparsely decorated with a single string of lights and exactly three homemade ornaments, one for each of the people who were actually there for the holiday every year. Grant just so happened to be the one who put it up on the first of December while his brother and his boyfriend bickered about holiday foods.

          “Leave him alone, Tommy. You know he doesn’t cooperate until the twentieth,  _at least_ , that never changes. Don’t make me lock up the food dye with the left over fireworks from July.”

          Still pouting, Thomas got up from the couch and shook his head while stalking over to the other side of the room. “I’m just trying to make everything more  _festive_ , for once. If we did things ‘Poldo’s way every year, we wouldn’t even have a tree downstairs. Come on, Grant, even you aren’t that much of a grinch.”

          At the words, Leo flinched and tried to press himself into the cushions. If he could disappear for a while, maybe they could avoid the argument he knew was almost two decades in the making. It was a stupid thing to fight about, and they all knew that, but that didn’t stop the tension that came about every December like clockwork.

          He hated Christmas, and they’d spent more than enough time together that they all knew why. But it didn’t stop Thomas’ enthusiasm, or Grant’s eye rolling and sighing, and it certainly didn’t make the pain in Leopold’s chest go away.


	2. the carol that you sing right within your heart

          The closer it got to Christmas, the more Leo regretted the full day of intense silence after the not argument on the first day of the month. He tried to make it up to them, running errands and surprising them with little gifts whenever he had the chance. His aversion to the holiday had nothing to do with them, and he was desperate to make sure they understood that.

          Grant, as always, was just as attentive. There was more than one night when the Scot found chocolate on his pillow, and he certainly didn’t mind having his hand held at every possible opportunity. His boyfriend was wonderful. It was his boyfriend’s  _brother_  who took advantage of how he was choosing to make amends.

          Almost every day, he was sent out to complete a new task, usually grocery shopping. Leo didn’t mind it, for the most part. He knew he was at least partially in the wrong for ruining the mood during the decorating, and the fact that the little tree in the apartment had since been taken down only made him feel worse. So, he took Thomas’ list every day and restocked the kitchen down to every last bottle of food coloring.

          He let himself in through the back door into the kitchen when he returned from yet another trip, weighted down with cans of olives, a new loaf of bread, jars of pickles, and guilt. They were hours away from opening, so the bar, being as quiet as it was, didn’t surprise him. Grant was likely still asleep upstairs, or just getting up and starting his day, and the idea of crawling back into bed had never been more appealing. He tried to hurry through putting everything away, only barely finishing up when he saw the dishes in the sink from the night before. It had been a little busy, sure, but not so busy that basic tasks couldn’t be completed.

          With a scowl, Leo started off toward the stairs. He was still on shaky ground, so he couldn’t really tell their chef off for how he did his job, but  _Grant_  could. It was Grant’s baby brother who was causing the trouble, after all. “Grant!” Leo was almost all the way up the stairs before he called out, frown in place. “I need you to have a talk with- Tommy?” Just as the words left his mouth, he nearly rand directly into the chest of the man he wanted to chew out, and he would have done exactly that if his gaze hadn’t already been caught on something.

          Or, rather, some _one_.

          Multiple someones.

          And a tree.

          The small area of their apartment that they called a living room was practically nonexistent, filled to the brim with a huge tree that rivaled the one in the space they had downstairs, and  _people_. There weren’t many of them, but it was all the people who mattered - at least, those of which who could drive to them. Grant was still in his snowflake pajamas, but everyone else... Jemma and Thomas and Skye were all in matching sweaters, wide grins on their faces. It was the very last thing he expected to see when he got home from a grocery run.

          He felt suddenly overwhelmed, stepping back and gripping the handrail so that he wouldn’t fall. “What is all of this?”

          At his words, all four smiles aimed at him faltered, but they didn’t quite disappear. There was concern there, focused on him. They were  _worried_  - people who were upset didn’t  _worry_  about the people they were mad at. Not normally, at least.

          “We just wanted you to have a fun Christmas.” Skye stepped forward slowly, her smile much softer while she shook her head. “That’s why you don’t like decorations, right? Because Christmas wasn’t ever very fun for you, growing up? We thought - well,  _Thomas_ thought, miraculously not hurting himself - but, maybe, we could give you some  _good_  memories of the holidays.”

           Grant moved toward him, holding out a hand to beckon him away from the top of the stairs. “It wasn’t _all_ Tommy, but that was the gist of it.”

          Hesitating for a moment, Leo moved and let himself relax into his boyfriend’s arms with a weak frown. “You didn’t have to. You know I can tolerate decorations for a little while every year. They make you happy, even if I don’t particularly like this time of year.

          THere was a moment of pause before he felt a hand on his shoulder, and he hesitated before lifting his head to look over at Jemma. “If it makes you feel any better, the tree is only from Grant - Tommy convinced me to jump on that  _holiday food_  tradition this year.” She held up a wrapped sandwich, the paper around it covered with hand-drawn trees and snowflakes. “And the pesto is green already, so there’s no need for any of that ridiculous food coloring.”

          “The food coloring made things  _fun_  and  _festive_ ,” Thomas cut in quickly, shaking his head with a frown. “All you did was add a tomato. That’s not  _festive_. They’re not even  _in season_.”

          Laughing, Leo shook his head and took the sandwich with a wide smile. “I’ve never had your magic sandwich with  _tomato_  before. I hope it’s just as delicious - it will certainly be better than bright green spaghetti, I’m sure.”

          He heard the scoff from next to him, ready to speak up and apologize until another package was shoved toward him, and he was suddenly distracted by Skye’s somewhat messy wrapping job. “No, you have another present. Don’t just it too harshly, it’s hard to wrap something so soft.” After a moment of hesitation, he took the gift and squeezed it in one hand in an attempt to figure out what it was. “You don’t have to open it right now. It’s a sweater, like ours. I  _do_ expect you to wear it for at least one night before Christmas actually comes around.”

          “No.” Leo was quick to shake his head, trying to pass the still unwrapped sweater back to her. “Absolutely not. I’m not wearing one of those things, and nothing you say will change that.”

* * *

          After last call, after everyone had cleared out, Leo was more than happy to crawl into bed, not even bothering to change out of the sweater he’d been forced into. When he thought about it, it was actually a soft, comfortable sweater, and he didn’t really mind being a little warm. He didn’t even mind the added warmth that came from being cuddled up next to his boyfriend. “I’m never taking this off.”

          Grant rolled his eyes next to him, shaking his head with a fond smile. “I never should have let them get those sweaters. They’re all I’m ever going to see, and not even just during the holidays. Now  _I’m_ the one who hates Christmas.”

          With a laugh, the Scot next to him shook his head. “You guys didn’t have to do any of that, you know. I was perfectly content to hate Christmas for  _years_ , it was your idea to try to fix that - and don’t try to say that it was Tommy’s idea, because I know that wasn’t all out of the goodness of his heart. I’ve known you both for too long.”

          “It was either this or flying Holden in to talk shit about Alistair for a few hours. This way, I at least got to decorate another tree. That’s my favorite part, anyway.”

          His grin still in place, Leo rolled over to get comfortable under the blankets. “That would have been fun, too, but I didn’t mind the option you went with, either. Maybe I’ll even  _help_  with the decorating next year. It might be the only way to top the best Christmas ever.”


End file.
